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Biodiversity
Summary of CITES Updates to Wildlife Trade Rules The Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species conference of the parties ended June 15, producing over 100 formal decisions to create, strengthen, or fine-tune regulations. The next conference is scheduled for 2010. >Story >Post Comments >Related Blogs Using DNA to Enforce CITES Regulations Using a genetic forensics assay method that doesn't require DNA sequencing, researchers were able to confirm the presence of basking shark fins in Hong Kong and Japanese markets. These trade detections suggest that the high market value of basking shark fins is continuing to drive the exploitation, surreptitious and otherwise, of this highly threatened species, underscoring the need for improved trade monitoring. >Story >Post Comments >Related Blogs The Golf Course as Nature Sanctuary These managed green spaces aren’t surrogates for protected land and ecosystems, but they can include suitable habitat for species native to the area. Golf courses could act as nature sanctuaries if managed properly. >Story >Post Comments >Related Blogs Interaction of Climate Change, Landscape Conversion, and Harvest on Wildlife Populations Marten and Lynx populations in the Northern Appalachians were modeled for interactions among climatic trends, landscape change, environmental stochasticity, and species life history. Marten populations declined 40% because of climate change, 16% because of logging, and 30% because of trapping. Lynx populations declined 59% because of climate change, 36% because of trapping, and 20% in scenarios evaluating the effects of population cycles. >Story >Post Comments >Related Blogs When is a Species Endangered Under US Law? Under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA), a species can be listed if at risk "in all or a significant portion of its range," but the ESA provides no guidance on how to interpret this key phrase. This study proposes a simple test to determine whether the areas of a species' range in which it is currently at risk amount to a significant portion: if the species were to become extirpated from these areas, at that point would the entire species be at risk? If so, then these areas represent a significant portion of the species' range. >Story >Post Comments >Related Blogs Species Watch Florida Alligators Battle Pesticides Columbia Spotted Frog Makes Comeback in Utah An Invasive Menace Worse Than Kudzu: Cogongrass Large Population of Grey-Shanked Doucs Discovered in Vietnam Ethiopian Black Mane Lions, Elephants Lose Ground to Biodiesel US to Consider Alaskan Loon, 10 Penguins for Protection As Few as 13 Northern White Rhinos Remain Soda Ash Threatens East African Lesser Flamingo Population Peary Caribou Endangerement Controversy in Canada Oregon Cougars to be Hounded Business Corporations and Finance
Alstom Takes Lead on Carbon Sequestration The French company Alstom has signed a joint development contract with E.ON, one of world's largest power and gas providers, to launch a 5MW CO2 capture demonstration plant at Karlshamn Power Plant in southern Sweden. The demonstration plant will use Alstom's new chilled ammonia-based technology and is expected to begin operation in 2008. The company has similar pilot projects underway in the US. >Story >Post Comments >Related Blogs Wilmar Accused of Razing Forests for Palm Oil The Singapore based company is one of Asia's largest integrated agribusiness groups. >Story (Span) >Post Comments >Related Blogs Unilever to Sell Environmentally Sustainable Tea The company that produces Lipton tea, one of the world's biggest black tea buyers, aims to obtain all its tea from plantations deemed sustainable. >Story >Post Comments >Related Blogs BP Releases Statistical Review of World Energy 2007 This is an industry standard reference on known reserves and other energy data. >Story >Post Comments >Related Blogs Waste Management Launches Waste-to-Energy Initiative The waste giant announced plans to expand its landfill gas-to-energy practices adding 60 new facilities over the next five years. Its goal is to open 10 new facilities as well as begin developing 10 more by 2008. >Story >Post Comments >Related Blogs Canon Tops List of Climate-Friendly Companies >Story >Post Comments >Related Blogs Climate
US Congressional Actions: House Energy Chair Floats Carbon Tax To Prove Point
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell suggested that his goal was to show that Americans are not willing to face the real cost of reducing carbon dioxide emissions. >Story >Post Comments >Related Blogs Senate Compromise Measure Aims to Limit Global Warming
A bipartisan cap and trade measure supported by labor and electrical utilities sets effective emission targets but leaves open a giant loophole: a price ceiling of $12/ton on carbon credits. >Story >Post Comments >Related Blogs Mexico is Milking its Northern Deserts Dry Mexico's arid north - 54% of the nation's land surface - is drying out and blowing away in the wind at an alarming rate as desertification transforms this always-hardscrabble terrain into an American Sahara. >Story >Post Comments >Related Blogs How Much More Rain Will Global Warming Bring? Much More Climate models and satellite observations both indicate the total amount of water in the atmosphere will increase substantially due to global warming at a rate of 7% K-1. New observations suggest that precipitation and total atmospheric water have increased at about the same rate over the last two decades. The real question is: where will all that rain fall? >Story >Post Comments >Related Blogs Iron Fertilization Anti-Warming Scheme Condemned Planktos, Inc. (OTCBB: PLKT) intends to dump up to 100 tons of iron dust in the open ocean west of the Galapagos Islands. The firm claims the experiment will fertilize massive blooms of phytoplankton that will absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and help fight global warming. The World Wildlife Fund is opposed. A recent Science article refutes the premise of the concept. >Story >Post Comments >Related Blogs NJ Enacts Anti-Global Warming Law New Jersey became the third state in the nation to enact a comprehensive greenhouse gas reduction law Friday, requiring the Garden State to significantly cut emissions of global-warming gases. >Story >Post Comments >Related Blogs Energy
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Transportation
Massacres, Land Seizures Behind Biofuel Revolution Armed groups in Colombia are driving peasants off their land to make way for plantations of palm oil, a biofuel that is being promoted as an environmentally friendly source of energy. >Story >Post Comments >Related Blogs Practical Fusion, or Just a Bubble? Nuclear fusion is getting significant international research attention in the West and in India. This article explores the hopes and challenges. >Story >Post Comments >Related Blogs Alberta’s Oil Sands Threaten Water Supplies Second only to Saudi Arabia in abundance of petroleum, Canada’s Alberta oil sands are integral to providing a secure supply of oil to the U.S. But new research reveals that zealous oil production coupled with climate change has left the water supplies that are used to steam oil out of the sand in critical condition. An influx of water-conserving technologies and policies is needed. >Story >Post Comments >Related Blogs Ellensburg, WA Initiates New Community Funded Solar Power Residents invest a minimum of $250 toward the purchase of solar modules. The resulting power goes directly onto the utility's power lines, but residents receive a credit on their electricity bills. As more people invest, the city will buy more modules, thereby ensuring individuals' investments don't decline. It will take an investor 15 years to recoup his or her money at today's power prices. >Story >Post Comments >Related Blogs A More Efficient Grid for Manhattan Superconducting cables lead the way to more secure power-grid infrastructure with less resistance losses. >Story >Post Comments >Related Blogs Hydrogen Watch Hydrogen Fuel Cell Primer On-Board Hydrogen Storage Project at Argonne Labs Aluminum Alloy Extracts Hydrogen From Water Making Hydrogen From Potato and Corn Starch Lithium as Hydrogen Storage Medium US Awards $11.2 Million for 13 Hydrogen Research Projects Ancient Enzyme Metabolizes Hydrogen Pursuing Sugar-to-Hydrogen Technology Solid Hydrogen Storage Achieved Forests and
Agriculture
Field-Testing Ecological and Economic Benefits of Coffee Certification Programs Although farmers in the Chiapas highlands with organic and/or fair-trade certification may reap some economic benefits from their certification status, their farms may not protect as much biodiversity as shade-certified farms. Working toward triple certification (organic, fair trade, and shade) at the farm level may enhance biodiversity protection, increase benefits to farmers, and lead to more successful conservation strategies in coffee-growing regions. | |
